Monstroid is one of the most unique toys released in the vintage Masters of the Universe line, functioning almost more like a game than a figure vehicle or beast.
Design & Development
Unfortunately I don’t know of any concept art or prototypes for Monstroid. I’ll just note that Ted Mayer created a concept for a character called Brainiac who looks a bit like Monstroid in terms of head shape and the fact that it has crab-like claws. I don’t know whether or not it directly influenced Monstroid:
Image courtesy of Ted Mayer
The resemblance is even closer in the version below, which features protruding fangs:
Image: The Power and the Honor Foundation Catalog
As described in the 1986 Mattel catalog page below, Monstroid was a mechanical creature with a wind-up spinning action feature. Its large red claws could capture and hold figures securely. The play pattern for the figure was to stop it from spinning by punching a button on the side of the creature’s body. The biggest differences between the catalog model and the final toy seem to be in the wind-up crank and the stopper button, which are molded white in the image below, but are black and red in the final toy.
Additional catalog-style images appear in these pages from Magic Boy magazine (images via Poochi and Other Friends):
From my research, Monstroid was apparently first released in the US in October, 1986.
Toy & Packaging
The artist who did the box art for Monstroid is sadly unknown, but they did a very dynamic scene featuring Sy-Klone, Man-At-Arms, Thunder Punch He-Man and Roboto. The packaging and toy images below come from various eBay auctions:
The artwork on the back of Monstroid’s box was done by Errol McCarthy. You can see the original line art below:
Image via He-Man.orgImage via He-Man.org
Errol also illustrated the artwork for Monstroid that appeared in the 1987 Style Guide:
Image via He-Man.org
In the above Style Guide page, Monstroid is described this way:
Name: Monstroid Group Affiliation: Evil Horde Role: The ultimate battling beast Power: Latches onto warriors and whirls them around and around with a crazy twirling action. Character Profile: It clambers out of the ocean to grab anything or anyone that is unfortunate enough to be nearby. Only by striking Monstroid in one place can it be stopped from thrashing about.
Here is the Spanish version of the instructions from Mundo Masters:
Filmation
Monstroid didn’t appear in the Filmation cartoon per se, but three giant robots called the Monstroids did appear in the 1985 He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special. It’s unclear what relationship these have with the Monstroid toy. My guess is that Mattel had planned to make some transforming robots called the Monstroids, but for whatever reason didn’t end up releasing them. Perhaps marketing really liked the name Monstroid and decided to reuse that for the 1986 toy.
Image courtesy of Jukka Issakainen
On a related note, Mattel had also planned to release another Evil Horde robot called simply Evil Robot. This one was never released, but appeared as a loose page in some 1985 Mattel catalogs. This one, like the Meteorbs, was a simple repaint of an existing toy made by another manufacturer.
In fact, Mattel went so far as to commission a minicomic for Evil Robot. In the image below shared by James Eatock, we see former Mattel artist Larry Houston showing off his comic artwork of Evil Robot:
Comics
Monstroid appeared in the Star Comics issue #5, released January 1986. It is featured prominently on the cover:
In the story, Monstroid comes from the Sea of Rakash and is centuries old. Hordak and his henchmen have to work together to telepathically contact and summon Monstroid from the abyss to rise up and attack Eternia. Multi-Bot is brought in to assist, and with his help they succeed.
Images: James Sawyer
Monstroid appears in a German Ehapa Verlag magazine comic story from 1988, issue number 7. This time the story, called “The Flower of Life,” takes place on dry land. The location on the cliff face recalls the product photography shown earlier in the article from Magic Boy magazine.
Images via He-Man.org
Monstroid is also featured in a story in the January 1989 issue of Magic Boy, published in Italy. In this story, Monstroid rises up from the sea to attack the heroic warriors, instigated by Hordak, shown in his Filmation colors:
Hordak using Scubattack! Images come from Poochi and other Friends
Artwork and Advertising
Monstroid was featured in an Earl Norem poster released in the Fall 1986 issue of MOTU Magazine:
Monstroid appears in William George’s 1986 Eternia poster, below:
Image via Jukka Issakainen
Monstroid appears in the Italian ad below that originally appeared in Magic Boy magazine:
Image: Poochi and other Friends
Monstroid in Action
Øyvind Meisfjord has kindly provided the image and video below. Enjoy!
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Zodac B Sheet from the Mark Taylor Portfolio, published by Super7/The Power and the Honor Foundation
Initially, in 1982, Mattel planned eight figures for Wave 1 of the Masters of the Universe toy line. Envisioned by Mark Taylor, they were supposed to be He-Man, Skeletor, Teela, Sorceress (early snake-themed version), Beast Man, Mer-Man, Stratos, and Man-At Arms.
Mockup of what the 8 back cards might have looked like if the Sorceress hadn’t been dropped from the first wave, and if the figures hadn’t been cost reduced. Put together by Adam McCombs using Mark Taylor’s concept art.
But when Teela and the Sorceress were blended into one figure, it left seven figures instead of eight. Thus, Zodac was developed as the last character of the original eight figures, and released in second half of 1982.
1982 8-backcardback
In this text I will try to review and summarize all the information that was already revealed on the original Zodac character, as well as add some information revealed to me by Rebecca and Mark Taylor.
The original Zodac B-Sheet by Mark Taylor, dating from 1981, shows that this character was at first named differently “Sensor”. He was renamed a few times more before getting his final name “Zodac”. Possibly, the name Zodac is derived from the word ZODIAC – a term used in both astronomy and astrology, referring to the area of the sky that corresponds to the Sun’s apparent annual path around Earth in the course of a year. The association of this character with stars and cosmos (and the fact that Zodac is made a Cosmic Enforcer sailing through space), would go in favor of this name speculation.
The figure design reuses body parts formerly seen in other figures but introduces few new parts as well – a decision of Mattel to save money. It borrowed Skeletor‘s arms and claw-like feet and Beast Man‘s furry chest, while the new parts included his head, armor, and blaster. As a result, Zodac seems to be a being not entirely human, rather a member of a hybrid-like race. In an audio interview (conducted by Matt Jozwiak, sometime around 2006.) Mark Taylor says: “I don’t think he is completely human… He may even be a throwback to these people, to however it was that originally occupied Castle Grayskull. He knows a lot of stuff that nobody else knows about the history of Castle Grayskull.”
In the same interview, Mark says he never saw him as a bounty hunter, as he was labeled in the 1981 Mattel licensing kit, where his black and white illustration was presented with the following text: “ZODAC figure. The cosmic enforcer. The bounty hunter of our exciting universe”. Mark makes a comment on how that would be an idea too close to Lucas, referring to Boba Fett the popular character from Star Wars franchise.
There is a lot of controversy on whether Zodac was originally imagined to be either a good or an evil character. On Grayskull Con 2014 – “Power & Honor Foundation” Panel by Emiliano Santalucia, Mark’s original Zodac B Sheet art was shown under which was a label indicating that Zodac is an ally of He-Man, which would lead to the conclusion that Zodac was intended to be a heroic warrior.
But, in the above mentioned audio interview, Mark describes Zodac as an almost independent character, not inclined to follow either He-Man or Skeletor. He further adds that he and Man-at-Arms kind of understand each other pretty well, as both are warriors who are fascinated by technology. Zodac had his own reasons into getting into Castle Grayskull and they have to do with technology found in there. He knew that in Castle Grayskull is a great, wonderful weapon that he has been trained how to use, and if he could pull it out, he would gain great power and advantages in battle.
However, in 2017 Mark and Rebecca Taylor provided us with a back-story, revealing more information intended for this character:
Zodac was imagined as an evil counterpart of Man-at-Arms – a negative knight so to speak. He was to fight on Skeletor’s side and go to war against Man-At-Arms and He-Man. As, they fought “all day and all night”, Zodac learned to respect Man-At-Arms so much as a warrior, that he betrayed Skeletor and switched sides – from Skeletor’s Legions of Evil to He-Man and Man-At-Arms’s side. Skeletor was furious with Zodac and he came after him. Zodac then, along with his new allies, fought Skeletor to a stand still. And thus, he then became a trusted ally of He-Man.
At some point, Zodac was to go to Castle Grayskull and recognize the spacesuit from an ancient battle field, and he becomes determined to duplicate that suit. Apparently, Mark also had the idea that a variant of Zodac could be made, associated with the spacesuit: “The next time we see Zodac in a box, we see parts of the spacesuit that snap on to him that give him different abilities.”
It seems that the technology in Castle Grayskull that Zodac was seeking, mentioned in the audio interview, was to be the spacesuit which would give him different powers and abilities. So in conclusion, Zodac would have been He-Man’s ally, as labeled beneath his B Sheet, but he first had to walk the path from Skeletor to He-Man, from evil to good.
Perhaps this Zodac back-story info could give us some hints on why he was shown as an evil warrior in the toy marketing, including the card back art by Errol McCarthy where we see Zodac shooting at He-Man and Man-at-Arms. As with the initial Sorceress, a similar motif was conceived here, that of switching sides and teaming up with either He-Man or Skeletor.
But later, in the upcoming media, he was made a neutral character in the end, picking either He-Man’s or Skeletor’s side as he tried to maintain the balance of good and evil on Eternia. Of course, in the various ’80s media and marketing there were exceptions to this, as he was sometimes depicted as completely heroic and at other times as Skeletor’s lackey, (this will be reviewed in more detail in the upcoming articles on Zodac).
I wish to express my gratitude to Rebecca Salari Taylor and Mark Taylor for being willing to reveal and share the information on the original Zodac character with us. Also, I would like to express my thanks to my friends Jukka Issakainen and Adam McCombs in providing help and information on writing this post.
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The Spirit of Grayskull, also known as the Spirit of the Castle, is a reoccurring character in early Masters of the Universe stories. I’ll plot out the development of the character and the places it appeared.
The very first attempt at a Masters of the Universe story was Don Glut’s “Fighting Foe Men” treatment, prior to the first minicomics. Although the Spirit of Grayskull doesn’t appear in The Fighting Foe-Men, Mattel did provide this feedback regarding his treatment of Castle Grayskull:
Castle Grayskull
More mysterious
Should hold vast treasures
Should hold secrets of the universe
Add dangers for the unwary
Apparently one of things Glut added to make the castle more mysterious was to add “the Spirit of the Castle,” which appears in three of the four minicomics he wrote.
He-Man and the Power Sword
We see the Spirit appear first in He-Man and the Power Sword, the first published minicomic in the Masters of the Universe line. As Skeletor and Beast Man approach the castle, the Spirit warns them away:
An eerie voice — that of the castle’s all-present Spirit — warned them: “Go back! The secrets and treasures of Grayskull are for no one to posses! Go away…”
To which Skeletor responds:
“I defy you, Spirit of the Castle! Your many secrets shall be mine! I hold half of the mystic Power Sword! I shall soon possess the other half which is hidden within your walls. Then I will have full power! And none of your deadly traps will stop me!”
Later in the story, they encounter a metal door barring their way:
But as they touched the door, the Spirit of the Castle cursed them and unleashed its ghostly demons.
Skeletor vanquishes the ghost demons with his sword and says:
“Again I defeat you, Spirit of the Castle! Now, to seize your greatest treasure!”
Eventually the heroes are able to defeat Skeletor and Beast Man and send them running away. On the last page of the story the Spirt appears over the castle and says:
“You truly are the ‘Masters of the Universe’ who are destined to protect my secrets from evil forces. You should at least have some small reward.”
At this point the Spirit gifts them with Teela’s unicorn steed.
King of Castle Grayskull
In King of Castle Grayskull, Teela replaces the Sorceress (aka Goddess) as the guardian of Castle Grayskull.
Teela listened as the Spirit of the Castle spoke. “Legend tells of a warrior who will find the split halves of the Power Sword. One half is hidden at Eternia’s highest point. The other is beneath its hardest rock. With both halves, he can enter the castle and claim the throne and the secrets of the universe. You are to be the guardian here!
Skeletor manages to get both halves of the sword and tricks Teela into thinking he is the warrior spoken of by the Spirit. Skeletor defies the Spirit of the Castle:
“These things are mine!” he shouted to the unseen Spirit of the Castle. “The secrets of the universe are now at my command. Soon Eternia and all other worlds will belong to me. I am now king!”
We don’t see the Spirit again until the end of the story, after Skeletor has been defeated again.
With Skeletor departed, the Spirit of the Castle appeared again. “I must make sure that the halves of the Power Sword are never again used for evil,” said the chilling voice. “I shall send them into another dimension where even clever Skeletor will have great difficulty finding them.”
“Centuries may pass before the true king comes to claim his throne and fulfill the prophecy of the legend,” said the Spirit. “Go then, Masters of the Universe, and fight evil wherever you find it!”
He-Man and Teela did as ordered. As they departed, the Spirit of the Castle seemed to smile, knowing that at the proper time He-Man would prove himself to be the true King of Castle Grayskull.
Vengeance of Skeletor
In this story, the Spirit appears only at the very end, after the heroes have once again defeated Skeletor and his forces:
“No doubt they will invent new plots of evil,” said the Spirit of the Castle, appearing. “But you, the Masters of the Universe, will be ready for them.”
MOTU Bible
The Masters of the Universe Bible, written December 1982 by Michael Halperin, contains the next appearance of the character, now called the Spirit of Grayskull. In short, in order to hide the power of the Council of Elders and the Hall of Wisdom, the council transformed themselves into the Spirit of the Council. Then the Hall of Wisdom was transformed into the foreboding Castle Grayskull, with “the wisdom” (meaning perhaps the Spirit of the Council?) becoming the Spirit of Grayskull. The relevant text is quoted below:
ZODAC, the wise leader of the Council of Elders, called to the stars for advice. In a shimmering, gleaming beam a figure appeared out of the cosmos — the figure of an elegant and beautiful woman adorned in snake shaped armor and bearing a twisted snake-headed staff.
For centuries Eternia dwelt without fear, the SORCERESS told them, and now the time of testing fell upon the planet. For too long the Council had made all decisions; Their people had lost the ability to think for themselves. The time had arrived to cut the umbilical cord and permit Eternia the right to exist on its own. The Council listened to the vision which promised them that if ever the forces of evil should try overcoming Eternia a champion would arise to defend the planet. A champion not seen in all the universe. A being so powerful and filled with good that evil, no matter how mighty, could not stand against him. However, with all the champion’s virtue he needed one more element to make him the ultimate ruler of the Universe — he required the collective wisdom of the Elders. And that he would not have until he proved himself against the dark forces.
There Lay the danger. For if the evil powers discovered the secret — this key to destiny — they might destroy all that’s harmonious in Eternia. Once that occurred light would go out all over the planet and it could end with the same fate as Infinita.
Zodac gathered the Council of Elders in the Hall of Wisdom and collectively they concentrated their mind force until the sheer power of their consciousness created a mighty force field. At that moment, an implosion cracked through the corridors of the Hall and the Council disappeared in a blinding flash of energy. Only Zodac retained his human form as one of the Eternia’s guardians. In the Council’s place existed a mass of light at once denser than the densest material in the universe and as light as a ghost. It rose to the topmost parapet of the Hall of Wisdom where the Spirit of the Council looked to the far horizon — past the Evergreen Forest; beyond the Vine Jungle; above and through the Ice Mountains to the sealed Space Portal. It knew that one day an Infinitan would discover how to break the spell. That evil person would search the magnificent Hall of Wisdom. The Spirit, along with Zodac determined that it would not be found — at least not in its present state.
A great aura of energy burst forth from the mass of light which had been the Council of Elders. It surrounded the Hall of Wisdom and an astonishing shuddering and shimmering arose as the very air around the Hall glowed with a cosmic light. Anyone witnessing the experience would have seen in incredible sight – almost mirage-like, the Hall’s very atomic structure shifted; the molecules seemed to run wild as the building changed form.
The wisdom of that which once was the Council understood that the demons of Infinita would look for the magnificent edifice embodying all that it wise and good. But if they saw a dark and forbidding place they might go aside. The wisdom of the Council planned to hide the once beautiful hall behind the rocks, trees and overgrowth of the Evergreen Forest.
When the atoms and molecules slowed the Hall of Wisdom ceased to exist. In its place stood the dark, green, crenelated fortress of CASTLE GRAYSKULL. Its craggy towers and black windows looked out upon Eternia. The most striking feature of the castle was the entrance. The portal had the face of a skull. The skull’s lower jaw created a jawbridge and anyone wishing to enter had to have immense courage. Behind these walls and within the corridors of Grayskull dwelt the wisdom transformed into the Spirit of Grayskull. The Sorceress remained guarding the castle against all intruders. Zodac would sail the universe, keeping watch over Eternia, keeping vigilance over those who believed in virtue and wisdom, but not interfering with the natural course of events. Thus did Castle Grayskull slowly subside out of sight and the minds of all Eternians except as myth and legend.
MOTU Bible
The transformation of the Hall of Wisdom into Castle Grayskull is actually illustrated in the Kid Stuff story, Castle Grayskull, although the Spirit of Grayskull is not mentioned:
Filmation
The Spirit appears in only one Filmation episode, “Teela’s Triumph.” In the story, the Spirit of Grayskull appears as a floating head in the Eternos Palace courtyard. Clearly this is based on the Halperin Bible, as it’s not called the Spirit of the Castle and it has no visual similarity to the Spirit in the Glut/Alcala stories. He appears to tell Adam, Teela and Man-At-Arms that the Sorceress has disappeared. The Spirit tells Teela that she must guard Castle Grayskull while the others search for the Sorceress.
Screen capture courtesy of Jukka Issakainen
When Teela enters the castle, the Spirit instructs Teela to take her rightful place on the throne of Castle Grayskull. He instructs her in the use of Grayskull’s power and advises her when Skeletor and his minions try to take over. Teela is able to fend off the Evil Warriors until He-Man is able to rescue the Sorceress.
Screen captures courtesy of Jukka Issakainen
The Power of Point Dread
Spirit’s next minicomic appearance would be in The Power of Point Dread, part of a comic/record set that came packed with Point Dread and the Talon Fighter. Like the earliest comics, this was illustrated by Alfredo Alcala. The author of this story, however, is unknown.
In the story, He-Man notes that, after dispatching Skeletor and Beast Man, the Talon Fighter and Point Dread are his key to entering Castle Grayskull when he lands on top of the tower. The Spirit of the Castle appears and addresses him:
“That’s correct, He-Man. Yes, once again, you have saved the Castle from Skeletor, He-Man. I thank you.
“Return now to your city. Skeletor’s spell is broken. The king is well and the monsters have vanished.”
Piu Comics
The Spirit appears several times in the Italian Piu comic series. The Piu series is based closely on the look of the original four Alcala minicomics, so it’s no surprise that the Spirit appears occasionally throughout the series.
The Spirit of the Castle
In this story, we don’t actually see the Spirit, but Teela calls on it using a spell that forces Beast Man and Mer-Man out of the Castle. All of the Piu comic scans in this article come from Ben Massa/Orko’s Keep:
The Mockery
In this story we get to see the actual Spirit of the Castle illustrated, which looks very much like Alfredo Alcala’s interpretation. In the story, Teela warns the Spirit of Skeletor’s immanent arrival so it can thwart his attempt to take over.
Ice and Fire
The Spirit appears again in “Ice and Fire.” In the story, Teela calls on the Spirit to help her save Stratos and Zodac:
Update: Øyvind Meisfjord has pointed out that the Spirit also appears in the Eternia’s Deadly Maze Boardgame:
It also shows up at the end of the “Cloudy Climbs” story in one of the early Golden coloring books:
Personally, I’m quite fond of the original Spirit of the Castle concept. I actually have a very nice custom glow-in-the-dark version of it, shown below. You can read more about that here:
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